Bobby Lashley recently spoke to Ariel Helwani regarding why he decided to step away from mixed martial arts. Lashley’s career MMA record stands at 15-2.
“I think because when I came into it, I came into it with the wrong mind frame,” Lashley said. “When I originally came into fighting, I came into it saying I want to do one fight. Then I won one fight, then another fight, and then another fight, and then all these things started getting thrown at me.”
Lashley continued to say that he found it difficult to balance his home life with the type of schedule he would have to keep to be a full-time fighter. He attempted to build an American Top Team chapter in Denver but the costs of bringing in people to train were a burden. Running the gym as a business was also taking time away from his fighting goals.
“I built an American Top Team in Denver and I was like, maybe I can bring people in,” Lashley said. “But now these are a lot of expenses that I was taking on and now I’m running a gym. Now I’m selling my cardio kickboxing class and trying to push my crossfit courses and I was like alright, this is pulling me further away from what I’m trying to accomplish.”
“I was like, if I want to do this thing full time, get in the UFC and make a run or stay with Bellator and run for that title, I’ve got to put it all together and it was challenging. I didn’t find a way that I could do it and I didn’t want to take any time away from my kids, so I was kind of in an awkward situation.”
Lashley’s last fight was in 2016 for Bellator. He defeated Josh Appelt in Round 2 to win his 8th straight bout. Lashley only lost two professional fights. His first loss was via Doctor’s stoppage to Chad Griggs and his second was a unanimous decision to James Thompson. He would avenge his loss to Thompson at Bellator 145, however.
Lashley returned to WWE the night after WrestleMania 34. Since coming back, he is now a 2x WWE Champion.
